Suspected pipe bomb found at OReilly Auto Parts

Bomb experts determine it was really a Piccolo Pete fireworks wrapped to resemble a pipe bomb.

A suspicious device found at O'Reilly Auto Parts in Molalla Tuesday turned out to be a modified Piccolo Pete fireworks.

At 8:45 a.m. store manager Eric Kuykendall called police after he found what appeared to be a pipe bomb while weeding a flower bed outside the store.

According to the police report, Kuykendall picked up the device and moved it about 25 yards into the center of the store parking lot. He told police he had no idea how long the device had been lying in the flower bed.

During the investigation, police described the device as 10 inches long, thinner than a stick of dynamite, wrapped with electrical tape with a fuse on one side.

Police blocked the area around the store's south parking lot and called in the Clackamas County Bomb Squad, said Molalla Police Officer Aaron Christopherson Thursday morning.

The bomb squad determined it was a Piccolo Pete fireworks wrapped in electrical tape to look like a pipe bomb, Christopherson said. It is something people will do to try and make them be more than just a whistling firework and make it into an explosive. We dont expect that anyone was trying to do something malicious, other than making an illegal firework. 

According to the police report, no threats had been made to the business or employees prior to finding the device. Deputy Curt Kessler, a Clackamas County bomb technician, examined the device and cleared the scene by 10 a.m.

Kuykendall said he was not at liberty to say anything about the incident.